Thank Your Mother for the Rabbits

W.J. Keith is a retired professor of English at the University of Toronto and author A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada.

“Thank your mother for the rabbits” is, according to John Mills, a
meaningless catchphrase, “part of English folk comedy, the music hall
tradition.” It is an initially puzzling but ultimately appropriate
title for this volume of memoirs, which covers his early years in
England, his coming to Canada, and the numerous strange jobs and
experiences he has had over a varied lifetime. The jobs include washing
walls, teaching in a cramming school, maintaining railroad tracks, and
working on the DEW Line; the experiences involve literary associations
(gossip about Irving Layton and Milton Acorn) and his observations as a
convert to Christianity (the emphasis totally on ethics and attitudes,
not on beliefs or dogma). The longest and best section, “Unicorn
Evils,” is framed by a return trip to England and contains memories of
working-class living and the rigors of military service.

Although Mills has written four novels and created a reputation among
those in the know as a somewhat quirky but highly perceptive reviewer,
he may well be at his strongest in the kind of personal,
bright-and-breezy nonfiction prose represented here. He displays a
mastery of English prose rhythms that gives an impression of artlessness
but is doubtless the product of a long and hard apprenticeship. Readers
may sometimes disagree with his sentiments or find his subject-matter
unappealing, but, if they have an ear for language, they will find
themselves reading on compulsively. This is especially true of his
presentation of the shabby lives of his mother and in-laws. I cannot
remember this segment of English life and conversation being rendered so
authentically.

It is a minor miracle that this book has appeared in print, since
expert control of English prose is one of the least appreciated arts
nowadays. We should be thankful that John Mills is writing, and that the
Porcupine’s Quill press is prepared to publish him. Mills is a writer
pure and simple; his prose will be read long after most of our clotted,
superficial postmodernist posturing is forgotten.